Rural municipalities in E Cape ‘in dire straits’

Many in financial distress with poor service delivery, says DA, but MEC rejects claims

Sixteen of the Eastern Cape’s 39 municipalities are in “severe financial distress”, with crumbling infrastructure in many small towns — and half of the province’s six district municipalities under administration.

The three are Amathole, Chris Hani and OR Tambo.

Constant water and electricity outages, crumbling roads, overflowing sewers, sky-high unemployment, woeful levels of basic services, financial distress and rampant corruption are some of the challenges faced by communities in these municipalities.

This week, DA MPL Vicky Knoetze said party members reached this conclusion after spending seven weeks visiting 32 small towns in 11 municipalities across the Eastern Cape.

But co-operative governance MEC Zolile Williams’ spokesperson, Pheelo Oliphant, poured cold water on the DA’S claims, saying the party’s “timing is suspect” and the views were merely “a politicking gimmick”.

Only two municipalities, Makana and Enoch Mgijima, were still in financial distress, he said, adding that the department of co-operative governance & traditional affairs (Cogta) had sent teams to help the local authorities with “financial engineering”.

Residents in both Makhanda and Komani have, however, called for the dissolution of their respective councils.

On Tuesday, Makana Citizens Front’s Phillip Machanick said every major service in the municipality was in disarray.

Challenges such as uncollected trash, regular water outages, dilapidated infrastructure and poor leadership were the order of the day.

Machanick said his party had approached the Human Rights Commission and the national government to intervene in the city’s water challenges.

Civic organisation Komani Protest Action (KPA), which has highlighted the Enoch Mgijima municipality’s service delivery failures, is pushing for its dissolution.

Secretary-general Axolile Masiza said the situation was beyond repair.

“KPA pushed very hard to get everyone in the current council to sort out problems for the residents of Enoch Mgijima, but they failed, hence we are applying pressure for our council to be dissolved as no one listens to the demands of the community.

“None of them can lead us because of their arrogance,” Masiza said.

“They cannot be trusted to resolve anything in Enoch Mgijima as is evident by the state of collapse we find ourselves in.”

During its tour of the province, DA members visited towns such as Komani, Makhanda, Whittlesea, Stutterheim, Cathcart, Chintsa West, Chintsa East, Bedford, Adelaide, Cradock, Somerset East, Pearston, Krakeel, Joubertina, Clarkson, Woodlands, Storms River, Coldstream, Hofmeyr, Molteno, Steynsburg, Venterstad, Burgersdorp, Oviston, Middelburg, Willowmore, Steytlerville, Klipplaat, Jansenville, Kirkwood, Paterson and Addo.

The small towns are based in ailing district and local municipalities such as Amathole, Chris Hani, King Sabata Dalindyebo, Raymond Mhlaba, Great Kei, Makana, Enoch Mgijima, Port St Johns, Dr Beyers Naudé, Amahlathi, Walter Sisulu, Kou-kamma, Inxuba Yethemba, Sakhisizwe, Mhlontlo and Inquza Hill.

Their dire financial situation, Knoetze said, was compounded by the fact that many of the ailing councils owed Eskom more than R3.5bn, while others were struggling to keep up with salary payments.

“There are 39 municipalities in the Eastern Cape, 33 of them local.

“Of the 33 local municipalities, 16 are regarded by the provincial government as being in distress,” Knoetze said.

“The province has a population of 7.2-million people, with 1.2million living in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro and 700,000 in Buffalo City Metro.

“This means more than five-million people live in rural areas and small towns.

“The reality of what we experienced is that there is a general lack of basic service delivery in most of the towns, and that critical infrastructure has either already collapsed or is on the verge of collapse.

“Poor governance has devastating consequences for people in these small towns and seriously affects the quality of life of millions of people living in our non-metro areas.

“It is clear that governance in the Eastern Cape has been eroded by cadre deployment, corruption, criminality and a complete lack of political will to prioritise the needs of the people.

“These elements are killing our economy, any prospects of growth and, with it, the opportunities of our people in terms of job creation.”

Knoetze said some of the most pertinent challenges included high unemployment, water accessshedding or unreliable access to water, sewerage problems and a collapse of critical infrastructure.

The lack of access to water in some of these areas, she said, was “not related to drought or natural phenomena, but to a lack of maintenance and investment in new infrastructure”.

“In most municipalities, it was evident that service delivery is of a very poor standard.

“Provincial and municipal roads are in a deplorable state. Illegal dumping is a huge problem, along with the collapse of water and sewerage infrastructure.

“The poor service delivery is due to a lack of political will, and can, in many instances, be linked to cadre deployment which ... diminishes capacity within our municipalities.”

The Mthatha Ratepayers’ Association’s Madyibi Ngxekana said ratepayers faced a plethora of challenges, and things were deteriorating fast in King Sabata Dalindyebo municipality.

“We contribute over 70% of the KSD budget, but what we get in return is not what we pay for every month.

“Service delivery is not at the level we expect, while our rates are used mostly to pay staff salaries and benefits, and that is a concern.”

Ngxekana said refuse collection, poor road infrastructure, dilapidated stormwater drainage systems and sewage spills were major issues.

On Tuesday, Oliphant said the provincial government was aware of the challenges faced by municipalities in the province, and that the DA’S report “is not something new”.

His department had introduced what he called the Risk Adjustment Strategy “to help these municipalities jack up their performance”.

“That strategy is yielding good results.

“As we speak, in this last [financial] quarter of the year, 80% of the budget has been spent by many of these municipalities.”

What the DA was reporting about “was the situation in the 2022/2023 financial year, but that has since been turned around”.

Knoetze said it was a concern that in March it was revealed that some municipalities had returned R 2.2bn of their grant funding to the National Treasury over the past four years.